Patients requiring ongoing periodic extracorporeal blood treatment have traditionally received their treatments at clinics or similar locations staffed by skilled nurses and technicians who administer the treatments and operate the apparatus (i.e., the machines) used to perform the treatments. Should a treatment alarm condition arise during treatment, indicating a potentially unsafe condition for the patient being treated, the machine typically produces an alarm response that is usually both audible and visual. (The visual aspect of the alarm usually includes some indication of the type and/or source of the alarm condition). When an alarm condition occurs, the clinic staff are trained to respond by determining the cause of the alarm and taking corrective action.
Many patients undergoing periodic extracorporeal blood treatments find having to receive their treatments in a clinic very inconvenient as well as expensive. This has long been recognized and efforts have been ongoing to make it possible for increasingly more patients to perform their treatments at home. Whereas some "home" patients engage a helper to assist with the treatments as required, others fend for themselves. Virtually all "home" patients have a treatment apparatus that remains in the patient's home all the time. The "home" patient has usually received at least some training in how to administer their own treatment as well as operating and maintaining the apparatus. The training usually includes responding to and correcting alarm conditions.
Extracorporeal blood treatments tend to require long periods of time per treatment. For example, a typical skillfully administered hemodialysis treatment requires about four hours including setup and end-of-treatment tasks. Patients undergoing such treatments usually sit in a comfortable chair or upright in bed, and often occupy such time by watching television, reading, or simply dozing.
Patients having to endure periodic extracorporeal blood treatments, such as maintenance hemodialysis, usually have poorer health, mainly due to their disease, than persons in the general population. As a result, such patients tend to be sedentary and many have impaired mobility and/or flexibility. Also, the nature of the treatment requires that the patient remain quiescent during treatment. This is because the patient, during treatment, is connected usually to two extracorporeal blood conduits that conduct the patient's blood extracorporeally to a blood-processing device (such as a hemodialyzer) mounted on the apparatus, and from the blood-processing device back to the patient. Connection of the blood conduits to the patient is usually done by needle or cannula to a suitable blood access in the patient. The blood-processing device is hydraulically connected to the treatment apparatus.
During treatment, whether in the home or in a clinic, the apparatus is usually situated behind or beside the patient. Such an arrangement is normally preferred to keep the length of the extracorporeal blood conduits as short as practicable, and because having the apparatus in direct view is discomforting for many patients. Locating the apparatus behind or beside the patient also allows the patient to view an entertainment display, such as a television set, during treatment. Allowing a patient to be entertained during treatment relieves stress and focuses the patient's attention on something other than the treatment.
Hence, even though the treatment apparatus normally includes some form of user interface, such as a display screen, to allow the patient or other user to control various treatment parameters and respond to alarm conditions, the patient is normally not facing the apparatus. This causes two problems: Firstly, the patient may have difficulty seeing the apparatus. Displays on the apparatus can be difficult for the patient to see, particularly if the patient is lying in bed. Secondly, many patients are elderly and/or have limited physical capacity to reach for the apparatus when required. For example, since some alarms tend to be "nuisance" alarms, it would be advantageous for such patients, especially when performing their treatments at home, to know whether or not an alarm is a nuisance alarm before having to get up and take corrective action.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,522 to Healy et al. discloses a television system operable to allow persons, usually clinical personnel, to passively view patient data on a television distribution system. Whereas an apparatus according to Healy et al. makes it easy for a person to view information related to the apparatus, the Healy et al. apparatus is not readily adaptable to the home or other limited-care environments. For example, the Healy et al. apparatus does not alert a patient or other user to an alarm condition, nor does the Healy et al. apparatus allow a patient or other person to change treatment parameters.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for an apparatus for performing medical treatments of blood extracorporeally circulated from a patient, wherein the apparatus is operable to alert a home patient or a patient in some other limited-care environment of specific alarm conditions as they occur, and that can readily provide information to the patient about the specific alarm condition without the patient having to exert a substantial effort to look at the apparatus and/or take corrective action.
There is also a need for such an apparatus that allows a patient to control the apparatus through a readily visible, easily accessible, and easy-to-use user interface.
There is also a need for such an apparatus that can fulfill the foregoing needs without adding substantial cost.